


I Don't Have to Wonder

by writingtherevolution (greenmartini)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-30
Updated: 2013-03-30
Packaged: 2017-12-06 23:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/741540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenmartini/pseuds/writingtherevolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean and Sam take care of the innocent soul Sam rescued from the pit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Don't Have to Wonder

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing Supernatural, now or ever. Also, this is all just speculation as to where the April 3rd episode could go. Posted pre-8x19. Spoiler up through aired episodes of season 8. Completely unbeta’d.
> 
> Cross-posted to Tumblr and Livejournal

The guitar solo broke the quiet of the house. Dean reached out pulling his phone off of the nightstand. "'Lo?"

"Dean? I need you outside."

"Sammy? You're out? Why didn' you call sooner?" Dean mumbled into the phone, already standing and pulling on his jeans. 

"Just please come out," Sam said before Dean's phone beeped that the call had been ended.

Dean shoved his phone in his back pocket, rushing out to the front door of the hideaway. He pulled open the heavy door and went outside, a white Toyota Camry sitting in the gravel. Sam was standing next to the car. Cuts and bruises marred his face and what was visible of his neck above the high collar of his jacket. Dean ran his hands over Sam's chest, checking to see if any ribs were damaged. Sam caught his hands.

"Fine, just bruised. Don't worry. I need your help with him. I fucked up my knee, I can't carry him inside," Sam said pulling the car door open. 

"Who--" Dean froze when he looked inside the door. The clothes were dirty and shredded, blood covered pale skin, but he would know that blonde hair anywhere. 

"Where did you find him?" Dean said, moving further into the car to check on his brother.

"He was the one I had to rescue," Sam said stepping back to let Dean get closer. 

Dean rested his weight on his knees against the bottom of the doorframe. "How bad is he?" he asked Sam.

"Honestly, I didn't get to check him over. Drove through the night trying to get out of dodge as fast as I could."

Dean just nodded to show he heard and put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Adam?" his body jerked when Dean's hand landed on his shoulder. "Just relax, okay? I'm gonna help you get inside, okay?" Adam didn't respond, just tried to burrow himself further into the seat back. "Adam, is it okay if I help you get inside?" Dean tried again, softer this time. Dean waited, his hand still resting on Adam's shoulder, until the younger man nodded slightly. 

"Okay, we're gonna take this slow and easy, okay? Let me know if it hurts too much," Dean rubbed lightly at the boy's shoulder, trying to relax him. "Sammy, you okay to get the door?"

"Yeah," Sam said behind him. 

"Adam, can you sit up?" After a moment's hesitation, Adam tried to push himself against the seat below him. Dean slipped his hand's underneath Adam, helping him get the leverage he needed to sit up. Dean had to put himself on the seat next to Adam to hold him up. 

Adam settled in against Dean's chest and Dean felt the hot tear drops soak in through his thin t-shirt. "Hey now," he put his hand against the back of Adam's head, holding him close, cringing at the old blood that stuck to his fingers. "C'mon, it's okay. I got ya, shhh," Dean soothed, starting to run his other hand up and down Adam's side. Dean let him cry for a few minutes, sure that he never had the chance in his time in Hell. "How bout we get you to a bed now?"  
Without waiting for confirmation, sure he wouldn't get it anyway at this point, Dean scooted his way back out of the car. Sliding an arm under Adam's knees and around his back, Dean pulled Adam too him and stood up with his brother cradled against him. Adam made a sound of protest and tried to struggle his way free. 

Sam limped to the door ahead of Dean, holding it open until his two brothers passed through. Dean walked Adam down the hallway to his room, settling him on the memory foam mattress. He felt Sam come up behind him, resting a hand on Dean's shoulder as the two catalogued Adam's injuries. His blonde hair was streaked orange and brown in spots from dried blood. There were some spots of blood on his shirt and pants, but they seemed to be just small surface wounds that had bled. What was most disconcerting was that Adam was still crying and shaking against the bedspread. 

Dean looked back at Sam when he felt his brother's weight shift again. "Sammy, get on the bed. Get your weight off of that damned knee." Dean followed Sam's progress around the bed until he sat down in case Sam needed help getting there. "Stay with Adam," Dean said getting up from the bed. 

In the bathroom, he collected the bucket that was under the sink and filled it with lukewarm water. Grabbing a towel and a washcloth from the cabinet next to the door, Dean made his way back to his bedroom.  
His two brothers were right where he left them, except for Adam now clutching at Sam's hand, making Sam's skin turn bright red in spots and white at others. Dean left the cloths on the edge of the bed and set the bucket on top of the nightstand. He walked back out quickly to the kitchen and grabbed a pair of scissors out of the drawer. 

Adam didn't like that. He looked over at Dean, saw the scissors and started trying to push himself closer to Sam, trying to get off the bed. Dean pushed the scissors into the back pocket that his phone wasn't occupying and walked over to the bed. 

He grabbed Adam's shoulder and pushed him back onto his back. "Shh, Adam, c'mon. I just want to get you out of these clothes so I can clean you up. That's all I'm doing."

Adam didn't seem any happier to see the scissors reappear, but he didn't flail at all when Dean started cutting through both legs of his jeans and then through the black t-shirt he had been wearing when Michael possessed him. Once naked, Adam watched the scissors with weary eyes. 

Dean walked over to the doorway and threw them down the hallway, somewhere near the library section of the house. 

Easing himself back down onto the side of the bed, Dean grabbed the washcloth and dipped it in the bucket of still warm water. After wringing out the excess water, Dean ran it through Adam's hair, picking up stray streaks of blood.  
The cleaner Adam got, the more he seemed to relax against the bed. When he was completely clean, Dean helped him flip on a pair of sweatpants and a loose t-shirt. After some maneuvering, Dean got Adam underneath his sheets and comforter, looking like he was ready for bed. 

"Be right back," he said quietly to the other two, taking the bucket and washcloth with him. Emptying and refilling the bucket and then grabbing a fresh washcloth he walked back to the room. 

"Your turn," he said to Sam, who had looked like he wanted to doze against the headboard. 

"I can fix myself up, Dean. You worry about Adam."

"He's right here, there's not much more I can do for him right now," Dean pushed Sam's good leg over further to make room for him to sit. Rather than cut off all of Sam's clothes, Dean just got the washcloth wet while Sam stripped from the middle up. Sam seemed to have taken the worst of the beating to his right side, ribs a sallow yellow. 

"Do you want ice for that?" 

"Not right now, really can't feel it to be honest." 

Dean nodded and brought the washcloth up to Sam's face, running it lightly against fresh wounds. None of them were deep enough for stitches and none started bleeding after the washcloth cleaned them. Surprisingly, nothing else seemed to be worse than bruising on a fresh-from-Hell Sam, except for his knee. 

Ice was placed on top of it after Dean helped Sam change into a pair of Sam's sweatpants, providing easier access to his knee. There wasn't much to do for it until they could get the swelling down to see what they were dealing with. Dean stripped out of his jeans and lie down on the floor with a pillow that he stole from Sam's room. Sleep didn't come. He was too preoccupied with being awake for his brothers in case one of them needed something. His body didn't need to rest, it was the thought of it that counted. 

____

Over the following weeks, Sam's knee healed up and he started spending more time in the library like he had been, heading Dean's advice to take it easy and not strain the knee anymore than it was.

Adam on the other hand wasn't getting any better. 

It seemed as if the youngest of the brothers was actually getting worse. Each day his skin lost a little more color and he was sleeping longer and longer. Dean would spend the time he was awake with him, telling him stories from the road, about their dad, sometime's just singing until Adam fell back asleep. 

Adam barely ate and he refused to drink anything. Sam suggested taking Adam to the hospital, Dean asked him if he had the lie lined up for what they would tell the hospital staff. Sam never brought the subject up again. 

Today Adam's been asleep for going on fourteen hours straight now, not showing any signs of waking up. Dean didn't know how to help him. A hospital wouldn't know what to do with whatever it was that was causing this. Sitting on a dining room table, Dean folded his arms on the table and put his head down. He didn't know where the tears came from, but that didn't stop them. 

That's how Sam found him a little while later. Dean heard a chair scrape closer and then felt Sam's hand between his shoulder blades. Anyone else Dean would have hit for doing that. "Maybe we should ask Cas to look him over?" Sam said quietly like he was afraid to spook Dean. 

Dean nodded his head, his face still buried in the crook of his arm. He had thought about calling Cas already, but he wasn't sure if that was a proactive move or a last ditch effort. Dean heard a rustling sound, then quiet. 

"Hi, Cas," he murmured to the table.

"Hi, Dean," Cas said, not offering anything else.

"Cas, do you know what's wrong with Adam?" Sam asked.

"He spent too long in Hell," Cas said, his tone blunt and non-questioning. "Michael and Lucifer are relentless and showed him no mercy. His body can no longer handle being outside of the Pit." 

"There's nothing we can do for him?" 

"Offer him peace."

"You want to kill him?" Dean asked, picking up his head, uncaring that his face was probably puffy and red from crying for so long.

"He's dying as it is. I'm only offering to help him pass on and take him to Heaven where he will spend eternity in happiness," Cas said, meeting Dean's eye. 

Dean stood up from the chair. He walked down the halls to his bedroom where Adam was still under the covers, awake and looking at him when he entered. 

Maybe Cas was right. Adam did seem to be losing touch with his surroundings. He watched Sam and Dean whenever the puttered around the room or sat next to him, but besides that he showed no outward signs of responding to his surroundings. 

"Hey, Adam, Dean said, smiling. He sat down next to his youngest brother, running a hand through his soft blonde hair. He heard Cas and Sam walk to just inside the doorway of the room, waiting to see what he was doing. 

"Cas told us you're not doing so well, that you're dying and in a lot of pain right now," Dean said, keeping his voice quiet, not wanting to cause alarm. Adam looked at him with big blue eyes, nodding slightly. "He uh...he offered to make it end, take you to Heaven and finally give you a happy ending. Is that what you want?"

Adam blinked slowly. Dean was afraid he was going to fall asleep and they would have to have this conversation again later. Then Adam opened his eyes again and he nodded, more sure of this one then the last. 

Dean nodded after him, "Okay." 

Sam walked over and sat next to Dean on the bed. "You'll be fine, Adam. Try not to have too much fun up there without us." Adam smiled and Sam took his hand. 

Cas moved over to the other side of the bed, extending his hand.

Before Cas could touch Adam though, Dean had Adam wrapped up in his arms. "Love you, Adam," he said as Cas touched the youngest brother's head. Adam shuddered slightly, letting out a large breath of air before he sank boneless onto the bed, Dean's arms still wrapped around him.


End file.
